Yemenis defy president and keep chewing

[wolfwild]

By Philip Smucker in Sana'a, Yemen

ABDULLAH ALI SALEH, the president of the lawless, kidnap-prone Arab state of
Yemen, has declared war on an innocuous-looking green leaf with narcotic properties to which his people are addicted.

Government statistics show that almost 90 per cent of Yemen's adult males and about half its women, are regular users of catha edulis, known in the Red Sea states as qat. Aficionados first meticulously strip the leaves from the twigs, then chew them and finally knead with their tongues the golf-ball size wads that they suck for hours.

To the inexperienced, it looks and tastes similar to privet hedge. For Yemenis, it is a tradition as ancient and treasured as afternoon tea once was for British colonials. For their government, however, qat-chewing has debilitating economic effects as it leaves much of the workforce with neither the time nor the inclination to do its job.

The tell-tale detritus of the country's mass addiction is everywhere. What appears on first glance to be tree prunings - discarded tougher leaves that are harder to masticate - litter the stairs leading to government buildings in Yemen, an impoverished country that includes the former British port of Aden.

The trail continues into the offices of senior judges and top officials, who sit smiling languorously alongside strategically-placed spittoons as they conduct their daily business in slow motion